Monday Market Open | September 14, 2026

HOST: Protein Pulse Drive Time. Monday Market Open, September fourteenth. From The Sparks Group.

SHAWN: Oil jumped above one hundred three this morning after attacks shut the Saudi pipeline built to bypass Hormuz. Diesel futures moved above five dollars. That's freight, refrigeration, packaging, feed, and every truck from plant to customer. Harvest is running on diesel too. We've spent a lot of time on the price of protein. This week, watch the cost of producing and moving it.

HOST: Grind math improved. Cattle profits moved. They didn't disappear.

SHAWN: Fresh nineties finished four thirty-seven. Fifties ninety-three cents. Sterling has packers around plus one sixty-nine and feedlots about minus three twenty-nine. Cow-calf still looks strong. Year-to-date cattle slaughter is down seven point six percent. Retail ground beef hit a record seven sixteen in August while wholesale coarse ground had already fallen sixteen percent from June. Cheaper inputs and cheaper hamburger are not the same thing.

HOST: Pork broke again on bellies. Chicken still has the extra birds. HPAI is a watch item, not a supply reversal.

SHAWN: Weekly pork cutout ninety-two cents. Bellies down more than twenty-six cents. Brazil shipped more pork in August for less money. Chicken slaughter is up one point three percent. Cases in the northern Plains and Manitoba are a risk to that advantage—not proof it's gone. USDA only added one hundred thirty million pounds to the twenty twenty-six import forecast against a three-hundred-thousand-ton window. Watch utilization and landed lean, not the headline. Stay disciplined.

HOST: Protein Pulse Drive Time. Shawn Sparks, The Sparks Group.

SHAWN: Stay disciplined.